Esports in India has started to break its boundaries in terms of the rising number of professional players, tournaments, new ventures and so on. A few days back gaming and esports veteran Anurag Khurana revealed his own venture, Newgen Gaming, and soon after he announced his teammates and amongst them is Newgen Gaming co-founder and head of esports Kiran Noojibail.
Noojibail is a popular shoutcaster in the Indian esports ecosystem who has played Dota competitively for a period of time which exposed him to the world of esports. “It all started with me playing Counter-Strike with a bunch of friends at a cafe near my college. We soon started playing Dota and the complexity of the game and its mechanics intrigued me. Soon I was also playing the game at a Zapak cafe near my home as well as online on GG Client (Now Garena).”
From a competitive gamer to a shoutcaster to head of esports his journey in esports has been quite interesting. He expressed, “It has been a tough grind. In fact I initially took up a couple of tournament organising and broadcast responsibilities to get more shoutcasting opportunities. But I soon began to realise that this was something I was very passionate about and wanted to pursue this career path. Since it was at a time when opportunities in esports were far and few, it required discipline, hardwork and perseverance to eventually make a name in this space.”
Like his career graph, Indian esports has come a long way. He expressed that initially when he used to play for the tournaments, the prize money was quite low. The tournaments used to be mostly driven by the participation alone as the viewership was also poor and competitions were also limited only for the popular PC titles (Dota and CS). Over the years the esports system has completely transformed. Today, due to the accessibility of 4G and inexpensive high-end smartphones, games like PUBG Mobile, Free Fire, Clash Royale have created an ecosystem where esports players, content creators, TOs and others could pursue esports as a career. “We at Newgen Gaming are looking to further the esports ecosystem of the country by bringing varied offerings to different tiers of gamers across the country, irrespective of geographies,” he added.
He did not spill much about at what stage Newgen Gaming is currently in but he did mention that they are aiming to democratise the esports ecosystem in India. He stated, “I will be heading the team that will handle tournament organisation and broadcast. Also, as the co-founder, I will be working alongside the other members of the team to ensure best practices are followed throughout and aim to reach the level we have envisioned for the brand.”
Since his journey in esports is quite inspiring, many want to become a shoutcaster like Noojibail and for them he shared five qualities that one should have – language, in-depth knowledge and understanding of the game, tempo, voice modulation, discipline and dedication. He also highlighted that for esports production one needs to constantly innovate and keep providing excellent experiences to the ever-evolving viewerbase. For the newcomers who aspire to take a career path he shared that like any other profession, esports also needs “hard work, dedication and perseverance.”
Like Newgen Gaming, a lot of other brands are entering into the esports landscape, the latest one being Reliance Jio. When asked how much competition Newgen Gaming is facing, he said, “There are a plethora of opportunities in the esports industry. With a team consisting of individuals with vast esports industry experience, we feel confident and excited for the challenges that lie ahead. However, as we believe the esports industry in the country is huge and has a lot of potential and we are not necessarily in competition with others. We rather want to work alongside to help the ecosystem grow.”